Archive for February, 2011
FEAT is featuring CounterBalance
Hi everyone!
So do you guys know about FEAT?
Johnny says:
"FEAT SA (Featured Expedition and Adventure Talks, South Africa )is coming to Cape Town this month, and Team CounterBalance has been invited to speak! What's the big deal, and why should you care? I'll tell you. FEAT SA is a night of time-limited, adventure orientated, slideshow based, unique presentations by South African adventurers. 10 speakers have been INVITED to this years talks, held at Artscape theatre on 12 February. This is an incredible honour to be invited. Perhaps you have heard of some of the guys and gals who spoke last year in Joburg:
- Alex Harris – 1st South African to walk unsupported to the South Pole, and one of the few to have climbed the highest mountains on every continent.
- Mandy Ramsden – The second South African woman to summit Everest, and the first African-born woman to climb all seven of the World’s heighest mountains on each continent.
- Peter van Kets – Won the 5,438km unsupported Atlantic Rowing Race 2007/8 (pairs) with friend Bill Godfrey, and came second in the SOLO event in 2010.
- Ray Chaplin – Professional adventurer, of reecnt fame for walking across South Africa.
This, dear readers, is very humbling company to join in with."
Crazy.
So, our very own Johnny Cronje will be speaking on behalf of Team CounterBalance. His talk is entitled "Good Advice and Other Fallacies". The idea of FEAT is NOT to tell people about your adventure (most of you who've read the blog will already have a pretty good idea about what went down over the festive season), but rather to share an aspect of it that the speaker feels is unique, gives specific insight, or is not well understood. Johnny wants to talk about how the Team welcomed tons of advice from experienced adventurers, and how that translated into reality!
Check out the FEAT website for more details. It's a big deal!
I hate to make puns and all, but FEAT has been a feat!
Guys, Johnny was totally a guest speaker at this year’s annual FEAT.
What is FEAT? Why’s this a big deal? Well, the website describes FEAT as:
“FEATTM, Fascinating Expedition & Adventure Talks, is an evening of time-limited presentations. Each presenter speaks for seven minutes; no more, no less. With images. Although the speakers are invited because of their achievements, presentation themes focus on an aspect of their expedition – not the entire extended expedition. With stories of adventures on land, water and in the air, you will be enthralled.”
It’s a collection of inspired and awesome people who’ve done crazy things (like, you know, decide to unicycle 2,500km off-road) who have seven minutes to impress the audience with a novel idea, a physical feat, and leave the room feeling awed. Johnny got up there and did his thing, made the audience laugh, called up the whole of CounterBalance on stage, and helped the Max Cluer, the evening’s MC, up on a unicycle for a short ride – as he does. You know, as he does.
We’re tremendously honoured to have been asked to speak amongst these greats – included was Braam Malherbe, who ran the length of the Great Wall of China, and Peter van Kets, who won the 5,438km unsupported Atlantic Rowing Race 2007/8 (pairs) with a rowing partner. Unbelievable people doing unbelievable things – being part of these incredible speakers is humbling.
So, just to point out – CounterBalance is by no means dead, now that we’ve finished our Freedom Revolution Unicycle Tour or anything – for one, CounterBalance will be cycling the Argus this year, and we’re still short of our goal to raise enough funds for 2,000 pairs of shoes for Bobs for Good! We appreciate all the of the help and support we’ve received over the tour, but we are still urgently reaching out to the public for donations to meet our goal.
Check back once in a while, and keep an eye on our Twitter stream – we’re still alive!
*I wasn't reeeally allowed to take pictures inside, so have a look at the FEAT Facebook page – there's a great group picture up there taken by Jacques Marais, with all of us!
You can’t spell ‘Brad’ without ‘Rad’
The Freedom Revolution Unicycle Tour had some amazing, generous sponsors on board who felt that we were worthy enough to be entrusted with the responsibility of being ambassadors for their brands. Well, we’ve decided to share with all our experiences of the the tour, and that would certainly not be complete without telling you about our kick-ass toys, gear, apparel and accessories. So you can expect a few posts where we tell, warts and all, about the stuff that made this tour not just possible, but also safe and comfortable. These reviews will be published as timeously as a natural disaster – they WILL come, your guess is as good as mine as to when exactly the next one will be!
But to prove that our intentions are good, let’s start of with toys from Brad “Rad” Jackson of www.magiclight.co.za. These are video reviews that are done on our GoPro HD wearable camera (Thank You Keencam Imports!), so you don’t even have to read them! Just follow the links to have your day brightened and perhaps see things in a new light after an enlightening review on the MJ808e, Podio Luminadio and Niuge (okay, too many predictable puns in one sentence).
So, The CounterBalance Trust presents to you a selection of video reviews of (cue fanfare), Dan dad a raaaaa… Magiclight bicycle lighting and audio solutions! Just mossie along too our YouTube Channel to learn a little more. If you are as sold as we are on these stupidly cool things, clickty click yourself onto www.magiclight.co.za. If you are based in the Cape and want to check these out for yourself, send us a mail on team@counterbalance.co.za. We are more than happy to show off and sing “I’ve got something you don’t have, na na na na naaa na….